McNamara, Joseph D.

McNamara, Joseph D.

(1934– ) police chief, detective writer, research fellow; born in New York City. Known for his best-selling detective novels, he spent 35 years in active law enforcement, which included serving as police chief of Kansas City, Mo. (1973–76), and police chief of San Jose, Calif. (1976–91). He was a criminal justice fellow at Harvard Law School (1969) and was named a research fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University (1991). In addition to detective thrillers such as Fatal Command, he was the author of Safe and Sane, a crime prevention textbook, several other nonfiction works, and numerous articles.